A very interesting trick you can do with Pinterest is that instead of directly uploading videos on your board, grab snapshots of those videos and post links re-directing your audience to your webpage where those videos are posted.

The expected result?

Traffic to your webpage will grow dramatically.

Don’t let them just stay on your Pinterest board, drive them to your website!

3. Create a curator pinboard.

Lead the way in charting the history of your brand, and let your audience follow your lead.

Encourage them to share “little-known” secrets about you.

Create a timeline and share the milestones that go with it.

Let them see the steps you’ve taken.

Let them see before and after photos of you.

4. Launch a contest with simple mechanics on Pinterest.

Have a contest, and make it easy for your fans, so that they will be encouraged to join.

Of course a little challenge is called for.

But don’t make it like having a hundred criteria just to win the prize.

5. Share cultural and natural attractions on your boards.

Share pictures that tell something about your values and other things that you hold dear.

Share the stories and the celebrations that make your place special.

Let your audience know the that can be found in your place, and your rich
traditions.

6. Let your fans meet the “real” people behind your brand.

This is one great way of humanizing the company and having a personal voice that speaks to your audience.

Create a “Meet Our Team” board.

A company’s logo may signify a lot, but the customers are also interested about knowing the people who had made your brand a success.

This is like giving your audience a virtual handshake, and this is where a lot of conversations start.

7. Use trending topics as your board’s subjects.

Now, what can be better than this?

Get “Likes” and re-pins from your followers who are very excited to know and share the latest happening online.

8. Create a “Contributors’ Board.”

Make your audience “talk.”

Create a “Contributors’ Board” that will allow your audience to speak up their minds.

It is also a great opportunity to invite community influencers.

Expect more re-pins and “shares” from your fans and the community influencers alike.

9. Share “how to’s” and tips & tricks.

They are surely crowd-drawers.

Add a “Tips and Tricks” board where you pin different videos and tutorials on various subjects.

We can never really get enough of materials that can teach us how to do different things.

And people are always on the look-out for innovative ways on doing almost anything.

10. Share sneak peak on the latest happenings about your brand.

Pin stolen shots and pictures of your teams that might be interesting to your audience.

Now, who can resist a good laugh?

Aside from that, who can resist photos of those unguarded moments of others?

“Why the heck am I not getting any results from all of my social media activities?”

Does this sound familiar?

Often, I hear people complain that they’re not getting any results but when I ask them what kind of results they want to get – they can’t really tell.

Okay, perhaps you have an idea of what you want to achieve. But no set goal No clear plan.

You see, we use social media for different reasons. We might use it for media distribution, for marketing, for promotions, for customer service, but it’s likely that we use it for “all of the above.”

As the adage goes, “Failing to plan is like planning to fail.”

When you lack a plan, it makes it difficult to make real commitments. It becomes difficult to set realistic expectation. It becomes difficult to measure success.

It becomes difficult to sustain.

And I won’t be surprised if sooner or later – you’re getting nightmares on your head thinkin “how on earth am I going to get ROI from this thing?” “How on earth am I going to get THIS thing work?”.

Simple.

“Have a plan”

I know.

It’s good advice, but it’s nothing new. You’ve probably known from the beginning, right? It’s pretty obvious that you won’t get this social media thing work unless you have a nice clear plan.

But how are you supposed to do it exactly?

I know.

It’s not as easy as it is. You can’t just ask someone from (on) your office, or your social media manager, to come to your office and say, “Hand me a social media plan tomorrow night”.

I admit. I, myself don’t have a plan when I first got started and its one of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made.

Now, I don’t want you to have the same mistake I had. Over the past few months, I’ve poured in long hours to creating social media plans, for myself and others. Along the way, I have learned the recipe that will make up for a successful social media plan. And I guess, knowing the initial steps to take is already like winning half the battle already.

I’ve paid attention to the creating a social media plan, both of myself and others, and I’ve made a list of things that I think is essential. It’s far from all of them I’m sure, but it should be enough to get you started.

Research Extensively

I’m telling you this takes time. There are no quick fixes here.

Make your research extensive as it can be. Research on the product, the brand, the company, the target consumer, the competition, and of course, an analysis of current social metrics.

Whether you’re planning to do it by yourself or have a social media manager to work on it for you. It is important that you and your team have a clear understanding about your brand.

Don’t expect someone just pop in and create a customize plan for you in an instant.

Conduct an Assessment

Do a temperature check. Analyze your current social media status. Try to see where you’re at against your goals. What marketing activities have you lined-up so far? How can you integrate social media to benefit or amplify your existing tactic?

Use these findings to organize and build strategies for your plan.

Clarify your Objectives

Identify your objectives for your social media plan. Make a list, then, narrow it down to about 1 to 3 where you can focus for a year.

Some examples of business goals are:

Enhancing Brand Awareness

Protecting Your Reputation

Create Strategies & Tactics

Be specific about your targets, and then create the corresponding tactic.

Targets are distinct from goals because they incorporate specific number and
time values. If you have no targets to support your goals, you won’t be challenged to take action to meet your deadlines.

Some examples of targets are:

20% increase in positive brand mentions in 3 months

50% decrease in negative brand mentions in 6 months

You won’t win the social media war unless you win its many small battles. And you can’t do that if you don’t know how to strategize. Outline the channels you will use to reach your targets, and ask yourself why you chose those channels. Write the pros and cons. And if the positive reasons outweigh the negative ones, then you are good to go.

Set-Up a Timeline & Make Calendars

Social media is very dynamic and fast-evolving. What’s true and great now may not hold true 8 months hence. So create a timetable that’ll be more workable. Say about 2-3 months. Then make an assessment after that timeframe, and make your plan evolve as you progress.

Establish Measurement & Reporting.

How do you know how you are progressing? Make a list of results that you want to achieve, and their corresponding measurement of success. Like, how many new sales do you expect from a particular social media activity, and the corresponding increments as the months progress.

You visit Twitter every now and then. You follow some tweeps. You share some pretty nice stuff with them. You even share some of their posts.

People say you’re doing it right but you’re just not getting any results.No one’s following you back.No one’s re-tweeting your posts and your brand is failing like the Twitter whale.

And you can’t help wondering…

Do you need to be patient and spend more time on Twitter?

Do you need to tweet more often?

Or could it be possible that you’ve missed the most important aspects of reaching your goals on Twitter? Are you asking the right people for feedback or do you ask those who don’t exactly get what you’re trying to accomplish?

Well, I’ve collected 14 of the most common Twitter mistakes. You’re not alone, so don’t worry about it. Just take a look and see if you’ve made any of these mistakes.

1. You don’t have solid and clear goals in mind.

People often complain that they’re not getting any results, but when you ask them what kind of results they want to get – they can’t really tell you.

We use Twitter for different reasons. We might use it for media distribution, for marketing, for promotions, for customer service, but it’s likely that we use it for “all of the above.”

How you use it depend upon your end goals. If you don’t have any end goals in mind, how will you know whether your campaign is effective?

Before jumping on to Twitter, write down a list of your goals. This will get you farther than any other strategy. Don’t worry if you don’t know how you’re going to achieve them yet. An important part of the process is understanding the medium and figuring out its best practices.

2. You follow anyone and everyone.

We all like to have a huge following, but a huge number of followers doesn’t make sense if they are not targeted people interested in your niche.

If your target audience is coaches from Europe, shouldn’t you be focusing on following coaches from Europe?

Look for influencers in your niche. Check out who are they are following. If they keep a Twitter List, that’s a powerful indicator of whose messages they value. Follow their active followers and don’t forget to create your own power users.

3. You tweet too much.

I admit, I tweet a lot. But does that mean that I tweet too much?

You see, I follow a tweet schedule. I’m 12 hours ahead of my target audience, so there’s no point for me to tweet around 1-7 pm as they’re generally going to be sleeping at those times. Right?

Don’t send your tweets all at once. Instead, try sending your messages throughout the day. Keeping your goals in mind, measure your results. Use applications like Timely and Buffer to help you schedule your posts.

4. You don’t have a warm and welcoming picture on your profile.

I see this mistake almost everyday. They’re active on Twitter. They tweet a lot of nice stuff. But when you visit their pofile they have an egg head, a cartoon picture or a picture of their pet.

Generally, a clear picture of your face is a must for your brand. It not only helps your follower build trust in you. It also adds value to your profile and lets us appreciate you.

After all, how are we going to really connect with you if you don’t show your face?

5. You’re using an irrelevant or difficult-to-remember Twitter name.

Use your real name or your company brand name. Make it easy for your target audience to remember you. Your brand is your promise behind your product or service that assures your customer of quality. There is nothing more powerful in building that trust than to extend your hand. Online, using a warm friendly photo along with a relevant name adds up to making a good impression.

Don’t use numbers and underscores if not needed. If you really want to be noticed, isn’t it time to catch their attention?

6. You’re not filling in important details on your Profile bio.

Even if it’s just around 120 characters long, be creative and give us an idea of who you are.

Your profile bio serves as your reader’s first impression of you. Don’t miss that opportunity to make a great first impression.

7. Your social media networks are not interconnected.

A lot of people don’t realize that in every social media channel they’re in, there’s an opportunity for them to create engagement.

8. You protect your tweets.

LOL! Sorry, but how can you complain that you’re not getting any followers if your Twitter feeds are protected? A related mistake is to use the third-party services that require your new follower to respond by filling in a CAPTCHA to ensure that you’re not a robot. If you use this type of tool, expect to get far fewer followers.

9. You’re sharing links without context.

Most of the time this happens when your Facebook or Google+ account is connected to Twitter and you share a link without adding any description.

For Facebook and Google+, this might be okay as it automatically displays the image and description. But Twitter will only shorten the link for you. Depending upon the viewer’s preferences and Twitter client being used, that important image that you’re sharing won’t even be seen until the viewer clicks on the link.

It’s great to connect your Facebook and Google+ accounts to your Twitter account. Just make sure that you make your post appropriate for all three venues.

10. You schedule tweets without following up.

Scheduling tweets, without engaging with others afterwards, is a no-no! Twitter is not just a media distribution platform. Hopefully, you’re building relationships. Start conversations. Ask questions. Listen. Hear what your tweeps are saying. Just like in REAL life, real people want to connect with real people. They don’t want to feel used. They want to be acknowledged.

11. You’re not being helpful.

If you want to build community, be helpful to people around you. Help them fix their problems. This will help you gain their trust and it shows everyone that you care. If you want to build a strong relationship with your followers, listening will always be the first step, as outlined in the previous step. Once you have their trust, the second step is to dig in and ask how you can be of help. Engage with your tweeps. Start conversations with them. Know their wants and needs. By getting to know them as individuals, you really help them to remember you. Can you think of the last time that someone really wanted to help you? I’ll bet it made an impression!

Be AWESOME and good karma will come your way.

12. It’s too much about You.

It’s okay to tweet about yourself once in a while. But you should be tweeting other people’s thoughts, inspirations and silliness much more.

Share other people’s stuff that grabbed your interest. Ask what content your tweeps would like you to share. Make your posts interesting!

Remember it’s not about you. It’s about them and what you can do for them. “People don’t care about what you know, until they know how much you care.”

13. You didn’t provide links to your landing pages.

If your goal is to get more leads, shouldn’t you be providing links to your landing pages? It won’t hurt your brand if you promote once in a while. Just don’t overdo it.

14. You publicly shame those who unfollow you.

I occasionally see abusive posts when I unfollow people. Don’t fall into that trap when someone unfollows you. Always take the high road and you will be more respected and valued.

I won’t lie to you. I unfollow inactive and quiet people every week. It’s a Good Thing. I use ManageFlitter to do it.

You can’t blame me. Well, I suppose you can! But what value is there in following people who barely even tweet?

We are humans.

Let’s be honest here. You may have done some of the things I’ve listed here.

After all, we are humans and may even make mistakes once in a lifetime. But that doesn’t matter.

The fact that you’re reading this post right now, challenging yourself to avoid the mistakes I’ve listed is a good sign. It means you want to improve. It means you care.

You can’t control what your customers might say about your business – that’s a fact!

And it’s one of the reasons why a lot businesses are holding back from social media.

They’re quite hesitant on getting their business out there because they are afraid of getting negative feedback.

What these people don’t know is that in every negative feedback they get – there’s an opportunity for them to increase their engagement with their customer.

You see, in every single rant, there are potentially hundreds of people “quietly” complaining about the same thing with their friends. And if you are there to respond to them and give them solution on their problem, you’ve just made them feel you’re listening and that you care.

Not only that, you’ve also given those “quiet people” a hint that you’re a human that they can talk to.

So, how do you respond to negative customers ranting on social media?

Respond in a timely manner. Try to respond as quickly as you can. Leaving a complain unanswered is like telling everyone that you don’t care.

Apologize up front. Whether your customer is complaining over something silly, you better off taking the “customer is always right” approach.

Have someone read your response first before you post it. There are times that you may think that you’re being polite, but it may be perceived differently by someone else – believe me, it happened to me a few times before.

Respond publicly first, then try to take the conversation privately. Send them a private message and explain to them that you want to discuss the matter in a way that offers them better experience.

Show your appreciation for their feedback. Let them know you appreciate their feedbacks and that you’ll consider their suggestions for improvement.

Ask them how you can make the situation better – believe me they will appreciate it.

Acknowledge and validate the feedback. Sometimes, there are people who just want to stir up some controversy. Whether its true or not, you must look at it as an opportunity.

There you have it! In what other ways do you deal with negative rants online? I’d love to hear your tips on the comment box below.

One of the things that I always check when I visit a website is whether they have a blog or not.

You see, Google loves blogs and these might impact your business indifferent ways.

How?

Well, there are two things that can happen to your company if you’re not blogging at all.

Your potential clients might not recognize you at all.

It’s pretty common for us to do an online research first before we buy a certain product or service right? So if your company doesn’t have an active blog, your website will most likely not work well on Google search results.

Your search engine results might get dominated by other people talking

Although it’s nice that other people are talking about you online, keep in mind that if you’re not blogging at all, you’ve just opted yourself out from the conversation and you are not going to have a say on the results that they see online.

Why blog?

There are lots of reasons why you should blog . In fact, we have different goals when it comes to using it. Below are some of most common reasons why you should blog for your business:

A blog is a great tool to help you promote your products and services online without being to pushy!

A blog can help you become more appealing to a lot more people. It helps you promote interaction and involvement which is more likely what you need to catch your audience’s attention.

It helps you establish expertise in a wider subject matter and promote your business in a different way where you can still provide content that is valuable.

Lastly, always keep in mind that if you’re blogging and you have an active blog that’s doing well on Google that means you’re blog is also going to do well on better search engine results. C’mon! Who wouldn’t want their website to get on top of Google search results?

Just weeks ago, Facebook had been so eager to convince their users to manually change their profile pages to timeline.

And as some people are still trying to absorb the news, Facebook decides for a mandatory change of settings in weeks to come.

Yes, all of our profiles will be changed to timeline whether we like it or not. The reason behind this according to Facebook is to make our profiles more appealing while viewed in a chronological order.

And the news about Facebook doesn’t end there. In a recently concluded marketer’s meeting, it is said that the same changes will apply to Facebook pages as well which will be formally launched hopefully by February 29. [HT: BusinessInsider]

If that happens, there would be plenty of things for marketers and social media managers to get up to speed.

So what do you think, is this a good news or a bad news? What do you think about timeline? Don’t forget to post your comments below!

]]>http://inboundmarketinggeek.com/facebook-timeline-for-pages/feed/7http://inboundmarketinggeek.com/facebook-timeline-for-pages/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=facebook-timeline-for-pagesHow to Claim your LinkedIn Vanity URL?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/InboundMarketingGeek/~3/X1ZW0VlZemA/
http://inboundmarketinggeek.com/linkedin-vanity-url/#commentsThu, 02 Feb 2012 21:00:52 +0000http://inboundmarketinggeek.com/?p=72Instead of using a LinkedIn Profile URL with a million confusing numbers at the end, wouldn’t it be nicer and cleaner to see your LinkedIn Profile URL like this http://ph.linkedin.com/in/valeriedeveza?

Make your profile look more professional and easier to share. It’s easy and should take you about 5 seconds.

How?

All you have to do is head over to this link. Click “customize your public profile URL” down on the right-hand side and put in your desired vanity URL.

That’s it! Easy, right?

Common! Do it now and share your new LinkedIn Profile URL on the comment box below.

]]>http://inboundmarketinggeek.com/linkedin-vanity-url/feed/10http://inboundmarketinggeek.com/linkedin-vanity-url/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=linkedin-vanity-urlHow Do You Find Time To Blog?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/InboundMarketingGeek/~3/jKdtQzcJM6g/
http://inboundmarketinggeek.com/find-time-to-blog/#commentsTue, 31 Jan 2012 21:00:50 +0000http://inboundmarketinggeek.com/?p=56

Most of us have other businesses to take care of and it’s really frustrating when you can’t find time to blog.

Surely, this is a challenge most of us have met so many times.

This is why I wanted to share with you what I’ve learned from David Meerman Scott about finding time to blog.

Stop Looking for Excuses

“I completely recognize being busy,” says David Meerman Scott. We often point out our busy schedule as an excuse for getting stuff done. This time, let’s try to stop looking for excuses and start prioritizing your daily tasks.

Simply multitask when possible.

It doesn’t have to consume all your time. Do it when you find time. For instance, try to take down notes and create content while waiting or traveling. DM Scott and Chris Brogan do this all the time.

Make it part of your life

Finding time to blog is like finding time to exercise. Exercise is important to your health, right? – that’s why you try to do it on a daily basis. Same with blogging, it’s important for your business that’s why you need to make it part of your daily routine . You need make it a part of your life.

I know! It’s not easy and it will take some time but that’s how we do it.

It’s Your Turn.

How do you find time to blog? What other tips would you add? Let me know (in the comments, of course!) what works for you.

]]>http://inboundmarketinggeek.com/find-time-to-blog/feed/15http://inboundmarketinggeek.com/find-time-to-blog/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=find-time-to-blog#McDstories Backfires for McDonaldshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/InboundMarketingGeek/~3/nGDq5yLmZYs/
http://inboundmarketinggeek.com/mcdstories-backfires-for-mcdonalds/#commentsSun, 29 Jan 2012 21:00:06 +0000http://inboundmarketinggeek.com/?p=221Just last week, a twitter campaign organized by the McDonald’s company backfired as it began to attract the wrong kind of attention.

Last Thursday, McDonald’s decided to embrace the power of Twitter by formally launching 2 Hashtags namely, #MeetTheFarmers and #McDstories to promote the guarantee of a fresh produce now being advocated by the said company.

As thousands of people responded positively to the #MeetTheFarmers campaign, a lot more people were hooked with sharing their own experiences by using the hashtag #McDStories. But instead of great feedbacks, it drew terrible responses from its followers.

Following the social media disaster, an emailed statement from McDonald’s social media director Rick Wion was released.

“Last Thursday, we planned to use two different hashtags during a promoted trend – #meetthefarmers and #mcdstories.
While #meetthefarmers was used for the majority of the day and successful in raising awareness of the Supplier Stories campaign, #mcdstories did not go as planned. We quickly pulled #mcdstories and it was promoted for less than two hours.

Within an hour of pulling #McDStories the number of conversations about it fell off from a peak of 1600 to a few dozen. It is also important to keep those numbers in perspective. There were 72,788 mentions of McDonald’s overall that day so the traction of #McDStories was a tiny percentage (2%) of that.

With all social media campaigns, we include contingency plans should the conversation not go as planned. The ability to change midstream helped this small blip from becoming something larger.”

Now, that’s one event we should all learn from when we decide to use this present day’s most powerful marketing tool – the internet.

Inbound Marketing Takeaway:

Expect the unexpected… Always have a disaster plan.

That’s it for now! I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

]]>http://inboundmarketinggeek.com/mcdstories-backfires-for-mcdonalds/feed/2http://inboundmarketinggeek.com/mcdstories-backfires-for-mcdonalds/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mcdstories-backfires-for-mcdonaldsAre you asking yourself, why start on Google Plus?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/InboundMarketingGeek/~3/DnUHxenNHGE/
http://inboundmarketinggeek.com/google-plus/#commentsThu, 26 Jan 2012 21:00:01 +0000http://inboundmarketinggeek.com/?p=68Are you asking yourself, why start on Google Plus? Well, I can hear you buddy and you are not alone. Like you, most “average users” are not willing to consider a new social tool. You are probably thinking, why would I want another social media account when I’m pretty much happy with my Facebook?

But let me ask you this, are you still on Friendster and MySpace? Do you still wake up in the morning to check who viewed you on Friendster? I bet not!

Just like what Chris Brogan said on IMS2011 , “Sorry humans of earth, technology evolves and we’ve got to go where the technology is! You’ve got to go where the people are.” Never fall in love with the social network. Instead, fall in love with the people and go with the one that lets you reach them — makes sense right?

Google Plus, why another social network?

Clean and sleek design

Google plus is sort a like Facebook but a lot cleaner. According to Chris Brogan that’s because it doesn’t have blue in it. LOL! Kidding aside, it’s really a lot cleaner. If you look at the top right of my profile (see image below) there are five sleek icons.

One is a little house, one is a set of pictures, the third one is a round icon with a person in it, the forth one is a bunch of circles and the fifth one is my favorite. This is one of the reasons why I think Google plus is cooler than Facebook. Games have their own little section so you never have to see what your friends are playing (as if I care about it!) on your mainstreams.

Opportunity for better about page

Google Plus gives you the opportunity to make a better “About” page. If you haven’t customized your Google Plus profile yet, please do! Specially your employment section, as this is something that everyone will see when they hover on your name.

Innovative ways to organize and group your contacts

Another reason for you to start with Google plus is its innovative way to organize and group your contacts. Although I know you can also do it on Twitter and Facebook, its a lot easier here.

Better search results

Lastly, the biggest reason you should jump to Google plus, even if I did mention everything as I’ve stated above is the fact that search is Google’s number one business and that Google is the number one search engine in the world. Everything that you share on Google plus are indexed by Google. Twitter is no longer indexed by Google and Facebook was never indexed by Google. Just take a look at my screenshot below. My Google Plus Profile beat my Facebook profile! Sweet right? Mind you, Google plus hasn’t released their own URL shortener yet. What more if they do that! Kapow!

Overall, I love the simplicity and privacy Google offers its users. If your still not convinced on starting up with Google Plus then maybe I’ll see you on Friendster.